Being a Happy Hermit

I've been wanting to say something about the appalling state of American politics. It seems to me that the most urgent issue in U.S. governance is not this party's policies or that party's policies, not what the last president did or what the new one is going to do. The most urgent issue facing us is our polarization, and I don't mean the dysfunctional Congress -- I mean the great gulf running between us, the voters. And I don't mean out there , I mean right here in my mirror, because I am as firmly pro-this side and as firmly disgusted by that side as anybody else.  Every four years, we're all faced with the absolutely stunning evidence that roughly half the electorate is stupid, crazy, and apparently just downright evil. Each half thinks that same thing about the other half, right? The Democrats were so horrified when Trump won in 2016, the website for Canada's immigration administration crashed with all the people who would rather leave America than call

I've changed my mind about blogging weekly. My vows as a hermit are Solitude, Silence, and Simplicity . Blogging is interfering with the Silence. I spend a lot of time thinking, which is great, but spending time trying to frame my thinking in words to get it across to other people is not so great. I'm thinking my thoughts twice, instead of just moving through them and on to the next experience. I'm getting bogged down, not living in the moment, which interferes with the openness that contemplation requires. I'm always evaluating myself, not just in relation to God and our relationship, but to try to express my truth to the outside world. It just doesn't work for me, for this contemplative life.  I have always thought that introspective writing is much more useful when it is about lessons learned in the past. Experiences need to be gotten through, reflected on, and seen from the perspective of their longer-term effects. But I'm still in the first stage of the ere